Tony Hetherington investigates

Every week, Tony Hetherington replies to readers' letters, adding comments, advice and the results of his enquiries.

If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS. Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies.

Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.

Pensioner in limbo over land gamble

Ms A. T. writes: United Land Holdings Plc sold plots of land to investors like me, but the Department of Trade & Industry closed it down. My solicitor has been unable to find any further information and I am at my wits' end as I am a pensioner and do not know where to turn to try to recover the £12,000 I invested.

I am so sorry that you missed the warning in Financial Mail last year, after I met United Land Holdings boss Martyn Hayes at the field on the edge of Melksham, Wiltshire, where he was selling land in housesize plots.

At least one of his salesmen was drumming up business with the completely false tale that the field had been granted 'urbanisation status' by the local authority, implying that planning consent for housing would be a formality.

This would send the value of the land soaring, but West Wiltshire Council told me at the time: 'There is no allocation of that land for new housing, now or in the future.'

Last May, DTI investigators gave evidence at the High Court that salesmen exaggerated the chances of winning planning consent and falsely claimed that ULH belonged to an independent watchdog body called the Land Investment Association, when in fact ULH financed it.

Judge Christopher Symons ruled that investors had been 'seriously misled' and he ordered that the Association, ULH, and two connected companies - United Property Holdings and United Land Acquisitions - should be wound up.

However, ULH, the company you dealt with, and United Land Acquisitions have lodged appeals. So, though both companies are in the hands of the Official Receiver, he can do nothing yet to help creditors.

The really bad news is that the appeal hearings are likely to last a week - and the High Court does not have a five-day time slot available until next July. This means you do not even know whether you have legal title to your land, or whether your £12,000 was found in ULH's bank account when the Official Receiver took over.

Apart from the rather pointless advice that you should get a solicitor, which you have already done, the Official Receiver's office will only say: 'Staff do not have any further information and are not currently able to discuss individual plots of land or give advice to individual customers.'

I shall keep a close eye on what happens and publish as much as possible, but with land investment companies now being investigated by the DTI and the Financial Services Authority, it is clear that anyone who invests in these schemes is gambling on land values. They are also gambling on whether the company they are dealing with will still be around to deliver the goods.

Welcome to npower

L. F. writes: I am disgusted with npower. A man came to read the meter and removed the fuse, leaving me with no power. Then I was sent a welcome pack, despite having been an npower customer for years. Finally, the company told me it had been advised I had vacated my property. Now, with the power back on, I am in debt to npower because it stopped collecting direct debits from my bank. All this, but not a word of apology.

Two letters were sent on the same day by npower. One addressed you by name and said it had reviewed and changed your direct debit payments. Helpfully, it concluded: 'You don't need to do anything. We will arrange the change with your bank.' The other letter, addressed to The Occupier, welcomed you as a new customer and wondered whether you had considered paying by direct debit.

But then npower cut off your electricity, despite being told by the warden of your flats that you were simply out. And even after they reconnected power, you received another Dear Occupier letter, saying that npower assumed your flat was empty and someone would be round to disconnect you.

You have now had an apology and a goodwill payment of £50. Your last bill was £30, but npower has cancelled this. While your direct debits went uncollected, you ran up charges of a further £67. These have been cancelled.

Bungling Abbey made a mess of account switch

J. S. writes: I am 77. My wife and I have an Abbey Instant Saver account and were advised by Abbey to switch to a higher-interest Flexisaver account. We went to our branch and supplied the personal identity documents they requested. We were issued with a passbook, but then we received a letter from Abbey, saying our application form and identity papers had been lost. They asked us to complete a further application. We are concerned we could become the victims of identity fraud and understand other forms completed that day were also lost.

Let me put your mind at rest. An inquiry by officials from Abbey's head office shows that your documents were destroyed after copies were taken for the bank's records.

By mistake, your documents were copied twice. Since the second copies could not be matched to any application form, Abbey's systems assumed this had been lost and that is why you were asked to reapply.

By the time you read this, you will have received an apology from Abbey and a hamper of goodies to make up for the worry.